


Falsetto

by SpinningFan



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: M/M, May update tags, The Joseph family is supportive, Tyler also works in a library, Tyler is trans, Zack and Jordan are best friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-19 18:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10645254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpinningFan/pseuds/SpinningFan
Summary: Josh had to take Zack and Jordan to the library, which is where he meets Tyler.(I wanted to read more trans!tyler fics so I started writing this)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry I don't know how to make the paragraphs stay indented

Tyler Joseph is twenty-two years old.  
He was born with a different name and gender, but only close family and friends know about that. Why go through the trouble of people's reactions, them using his deadname and throwing around slurs, when he can just let them believe he was always a guy?  


Tyler came out to his mom when he was eighteen. His reasoning was that if she didn't take the news well, he was already technically an adult and fully capable of legally finding a job and someplace to stay. But his careful planning was in vain because his mother took the news wonderfully, wasting no time in showering Tyler with questions. What does being transgender fully mean? Do you want to change your name? Have you already chosen a name? Do you want me to go grab some scissors? I'll be happy to cut your hair shorter right now. Of course, Tyler had a very short bob at the time, trying to look as unfeminine as he could without anyone asking questions.  


He had known for a few years at that time that he didn't feel right. The feeling of not belonging, that something was wrong within himself, would sneak up from day to day, bringing abundant self hatred that he tried to hide in baggy shirts and sweatshirts with pants that were two sizes too big, only staying up with a belt. Everyday he could see the questions in his mother's eyes about what happened to her happy and confident baby girl.  


Tyler really knew he had to say something when Zack, his brother, started sneaking into his room to steal his clothes, since they fit him better than they fit Tyler.  


So one night, when his bottled up dysphoria became to much, he ran downstairs with tears in his eyes to where his mother was doing late night laundry. With Tyler freaking out, Kelly thought he was seriously injured, until she caught what he was trying to say. Empaphis on trying. She vaguely heard the words "tell you" and "important" before she decided they should both probably sit down. That was when Tyler completely let go, telling his mother everything about how wrong he felt, why he wore what he wore, explaining what it means to be transgender, about testosterone and binding, until he was completely drained. His mother had been completely silent through it all and silent after it, and Tyler thought 'this is it, this is when my family is going to disown me'. But Kelly herself let everything go, telling her baby that she completely understood and would use his pronouns and help change his name, and when Tyler finally looked in the mirror after she got done cutting his hair, it was the first time he had felt free in a long time.  


But of course, Tyler had forgotten one little detail. He still had to tell the rest of his family. When he realized this, he started shaking and his breath started to quicken, but his mother was quick to reassure him, somehow knowing just what Tyler had been thinking. Kelly told him that he could stay down here in the basement while she went upstairs to explain Tyler's situation to his siblings, and that she'd call him up when it was done. So Tyler, still silently freaking out and trying not to throw up from nerves, sat on the couch in the basement as he waited for his mother's signal. And when she yelled for him, using the name 'Tyler' as he'd told her he wanted to be called, he was filled up in equal parts innate joy and dread. When he'd taken that final shaky step up the stairs and saw his siblings lined up sitting down and smiling at him, he knew that they might not completely understand, but they were going to support him as much as they could. After all the words of acceptance and encouragement from Maddy and Zack, Jay being very young at the time and just saying how awesome it was that he had another brother, the Joseph family all went to their respective rooms to sleep, but before Tyler could leave, Kelly pulled him aside and said quietly,  


"Don't worry, I'll tell your father when he comes home from work."  


Tyler's father wasn't a bad guy, he was just a little intimidating at times. Either way, Tyler was grateful.  


With a muttered "Thank you" Tyler left to his room. He couldn't sleep though, everything hitting him at once since there was no longer anything to distract him. His family accepted him and it didn't even matter what his father thought because he still had his mother and siblings.  


He smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to @sorrism for giving instructions on how to indent. I tried to follow so paragraphs look slightly better than they originally did.

The day after that fateful night when Tyler was eighteen, he woke not thinking of how his feelings toward his body might be today, but instead rejoiced in finally being able to look and dress and be who he had wanted to be for so long. He got out of bed and caught himself in the mirror hanging on his wall. His short hair suited him rather better than his previously longer hair, and he put 'asking his mom about binders' on a mental checklist after eyeing his prominent chest. 

A couple years before he had tried using bandages he found in his bathroom cabinet to bind, but after wearing them to school under a rather thick hoodie, not taking off the bandages or the hoodie during his basketball practice, there'd been a pain in his ribs so vehement that when he got home he immediately stripped of anything covering his torso. An hour later when bruises had formed, he silently prayed that nothing was damaged enough to warrant a trip to the hospital because that sure would raise questions he was not ready to answer. 

"Geez, you need to stop spacing out at random times," Tyler muttered to himself as he resurfaced from his memories and made his way downstairs for breakfast. 

Halfway there he heard clinking plates. Since he expected the person in the kitchen to be his mom, he was startled to see his dad's back turned towards him. And since this is wonderful ole Tyler, he forgot that he had came out to his family last night, minus his dad. The scariest person in the Joseph household. But no, Tyler just went along as if it was just a normal Saturday morning. 

"Good morning Dad, I don't really ever see you up this early," Tyler greeted. 

"Oh, good morn-," he cut off as he turned and saw Tyler, "Ah, your mother wasn't joking last night when she said you wanted to be a boy. I just thought she drank one too many glasses of wine." 

This was not what Tyler had expected his dad to say. On the other hand, he didn't actually know what he had expected his Dad to say. Well, once Tyler thought it over in his head, what his father said didn't throw off vibes that he didn't accept Tyler, it just sounded a little harsh. At least, that's what Tyler wanted to believe. 

"Umm yeah, I'm a boy. I talked with Mom last night and I'm going to change my name to Tyler. So, yeah, what do you think about that?" Tyler said awkwardly. 

Can you really blame him though? Standing in his socks in the middle of the kitchen while talking about gender with his dad is not something Tyler wanted to do first thing in the morning. 

"Well, I don't really understand why you'd want to do that, but I'm certainly not going to be the kind of parent who kicks out their kid over gender or sexuality." His dad replied. 

'Well, I guess that's going to be the closest thing to acceptance right now' Tyler thought as he deemed the conversation about his gender over and changed the subject to breakfast. Tyler wasn't the best with confrontation. 

And sure, the next several months were hard, people constantly misgendered him and used the wrong name, but Tyler kept in mind that they were trying, that soon this would just be a bad memory and he could live how he wanted. He had finally gotten a binder and he was about to graduate highschool, so even if his friends didn't accept him, he could just make new friends. He even legally changed his name, given it took a rather convoluted process, but still. Tyler Robert Joseph. 

It had a nice ring to it.


	3. Chapter 3

Back to present day Tyler. Present day Tyler currently wants to be isolated from all happenings of the world for AT LEAST one day. Just one peaceful little day. But no, instead he gets woken up by a very loud incoming call from his phone, and according to caller ID, it's his boss. Wonderful. But what's even better is being told that Melinda just called to say that she wasn't coming in to work so now Tyler has to take the 9 am opening shift and his pre-existing shift, and Tyler can't even say that he's too busy for two shifts because his boss, Mark, is kind of his best friend and knows that he has nothing going on in his life. It's rather sad actually, now that Tyler thinks about it. 

'Now is one of those times that you need to stop losing yourself in thought,' Tyler thinks to himself because it's now 8:40 and Tyler is not a fast person in the morning. He rolls out of bed and tries his hardest to at least walk quickly to the bathroom to brush his teeth and run his fingers through his hair. It doesn't do much, but it at least makes it seem like he tried to look good. He then ambles back to his room to struggle into a, hopefully clean, binder (it's been 4 years since he came out, but Tyler is a college dropout working at a library, so having enough money for top surgery is a bit slow-going. At least his parents had let him start using testosterone for his 19th birthday), a flannel shirt that he haphazardly buttoned (missing the top three buttons so it showed the beginning of his binder), and some jeans he found on the floor. He nearly tripped trying to simultaneously make it out the door and put his shoes on with his phone and keys in one hand, but once he caught himself on the wall he started running down the flight of stairs to get to the lobby of his apartment building and out onto the sidewalk. Tyler had never bothered to buy a car because he lived close enough to the library and the grocery store, and the expenses of a car would take away from his savings. 

He finally came to a stop in front of the library door, absolutely about to die of over exertion. Tyler isn't the healthiest guy, alright, and it was hard to breathe in all the way while wearing a constricting binder. He pulled the key that Mark had given him a month ago out, glad that he had remembered it and didn't have to go back to his apartment. Tyler then made his way in and started getting everything ready: turning on lights, unlocking doors to other sections of the library, turning on computers. A library isn't really that busy on a Monday morning, so Tyler was alone until Mark would come in at 12 to do whatever mysterious business a boss had to do while shut in his office. 

It was nearing afternoon now and the only people who had came in were two old ladies looking for books on cat care, an old man who had sat by a window for over an hour just reading newspapers, and a mother and her two children. Tyler was about to take a break and eat lunch when he heard a very familiar voice. Following it's source to the front door of the library he saw his brother, Zack, and two other people walk in. Zack was talking to whoever was behind him and didn't see Tyler sitting behind the front desk until he turned around. The first thing Tyler thought was that 'Zack should definitely not be at a library on a Monday afternoon, he should be at school' the second thing he thought was that 'when did Zack ever go to libraries?' 

Based on Zack's wide eyes, he could probably see Tyler's confusion written all over his face. Moving from his frozen position right in front of the door, Zack slowly made his way to Tyler. 

"Hey bro, you showing some skin today?" Zack asked. 

That is not what Tyler expected to be the first thing out of Zack's mouth. He just stared at him with mounting confusion until he saw Zack's downcast eyes and realized that he never fixed his unbuttoned shirt. Tyler quickly started fumbling with the buttons, taking way too long to fix it. When he finally looked up, his eyes locked on to the person standing at the very back of the group. He looked to be about Tyler's age, with a nose ring and bright yellow hair, looking at him with amused eyes. Not really the type Tyler went after. To be honest, he doesn't know the type he usually goes after. He doesn't know a lot of things. What he does know is that everyone has been standing in complete silence because Tyler was stuck in his thoughts. Again. How wonderful. 

"Zack, aren't you supposed to be in school?" Tyler questioned 

"Well, technically I am supposed to be in school, but usually you aren't here so early." Zack replied. 

"Wait, so you're saying this is a common occurrence?" 

"We only come here every couple of weeks or so, don't worry!" Zack was quick to assure. 

"We?" Tyler then saw the boy behind Zack. He looked oddly familiar, and he had the same eyes as the yellow haired punk dude behind him. "But your school is ten miles from here, and I know you wouldn't walk that far because I've lived with you most of my life." 

"We as in Jordan and I," Zack motioned to the boy behind him and Tyler suddenly that this was Jordan Dun, Zack's best friend since sixth grade, "and we don't walk, Josh drives us." 

That's where Tyler looks back at the yellow haired punk. 'That must be who "Josh" is, hmm, his name is fitting' 

"Ok, but why do you come to the library, of all places?" Tyler asked 

"Well, usually it's just for Jordan and I to hang out." Zack shrugs. 

Everyone turns around as Mark is heard walking in. 

"Hey! Tyler, thanks again for taking Melinda's shift," Mark greeted. 

"No problem Mark, i have a very flexible schedule, as you know." Tyler greeted back, which earned a chuckle out of him as he walked past and entered his office. 

"Bro, we're gonna go look at books. See you later," and with that, Zack and Jordan walked away, leaving Josh to awkwardly stand in front of Tyler. 

"Umm, I should probably follow them, but Zack kinda told me what apartment building you live in. Wow, umm, that sounded creepier out loud, but your building has apartments for sale and I was wondering if I could drop by sometime and take a look at what they're like. If you don't mind." Josh was a blushing mess, and Tyler hadn't expected at all for the silent man to speak to him. 

"Oh, yeah, you can come by and take a look. Hold on, lemme grab some paper," Tyler found a pen and wrote down his number. "You can call me when you want to come by." 

Josh, still blushing slightly, put the paper in his pocket and looked back at Tyler before muttering another thanks and something about Jordan before clumsily following where Zack and Jordan went. 

Josh seemed like an interesting guy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a week, I had to do Important Testing at school
> 
> (It also probably would've been uploaded faster, but I was reading the forest fic)

It had been a week since Tyler gave Josh his number, and absolutely zero texts or calls had arrived. At first, Tyler had been anxiously awaiting a text and would move embarrassingly fast to check his phone if it went off, but after three days he was just overcome with disappointment. Josh was the first semi-exciting thing to switch up Tyler's boring daily routine. And Josh was kinda cute. Or really cute, but that's besides the point. Josh had seemed really genuine the day Tyler had met him, but he couldn't have possibly been that busy the entire week. Despite Tyler telling himself that, he still would come up with excuses of why he hadn't sent at least one measly text. Maybe Josh's phone had suddenly broke, or maybe he had lost the paper Tyler had written his number down on (or maybe he somehow found out you're trans and thinks you're a major freak). Tyler was quick to dismiss that last thought though because he had been on testosterone for three years now and passed fantastically as a guy, had even been hit on by a few straight girls on the rare nights he would be forced to go to some bar or club with Mark. 

Speak of the devil, Tyler's phone rang, and with a fleeting thought of maybe it might be Josh, he answered and was immediately greeted by Mark's voice. 

"Heyo Ty, so I know you don't like going out but I'm literally the only friend you've made in this city and I want to hang out with you somewhere. So yeah, dress nice because we're going out tonight." 

"Well geez Mark, hello to you too. Also, dude, it's Monday. That's literally the worst day to go out to bars or whatever." 

"Tyler, do not find the flaws in my plan and be dressed nicely by seven because that's when I'm coming to get you. Oh also, since I'm the only person you know in this city," Tyler tried to interrupt him at this point to say the he wasn't the only person he knew, but Mark cut him off, "Tyler your family doesn't count, so because of that I'm going to bring a few friends with me and you're going to meet and become friends. That's the end of it. Goodbye. " Mark promptly hung up. 

Tyler checked what time it was. 6 o'clock. That gave him an hour to get ready. Walking to his room and opening his closet, he decided on clothes that looked good enough but didn't acquire much effort to pick out. That included a button up, his last clean pair of jeans (ok, so he needed to do laundry), and his Vans that he honestly probably wore too much. Since that didn't take long and he had quite a bit of time to kill, he plopped down on his couch and got out his phone. 

At nearly seven, a knock sounded, which he rushed to answer, opening the door to Mark's smiling face. Tyler greeted him with a hug, grabbed his keys, and put his phone in his pocket. 

"I invited a guy named Chris Salih to come with us, and I think he also invited someone. We're gonna meet them at the bar." 

"Mark, you know I don't drink, a bar is really the last place I'd ever go to." Tyler said. 

"Dude, you don't have to drink alcohol, you can get water or something." Mark chided. 

"Oh good, so I get to come off as a buzzkill to some potential new friends. Is this just a ploy so that you'll come off as more likable?" 

Mark scoffs and says dramatically, "Tyler, how dare you accuse me of something like that!" 

Grinning, they finally make it to Mark's car and start driving to their destination. It only took about ten minutes, Mark and Tyler joking throughout the entire drive, before they arrived in front of a bar by the name of "Lucky Hills". 

As they walk in, Mark points to two guys sitting on stools to the side of the room being served by a bartender. Tyler decides that the guy on the left with a slight bald spot was Chris because the guy on the right had rather noticeably bright, yellow hair. Tyler only knew one person with hair like that. 

Sure enough, when Mark yelled out and pulled Chris into a hug, Josh Dun turned around, too. As Mark and Chris were hugging it out, Tyler and Josh were left to stare at each other until Mark's loud voice chimed in. 

"Hey! You're the guy from the library!" 

Chris turned toward Mark and Josh. "You guys know each other?" 

"Oh, no not really, I just saw Josh at the library about a week ago, talking to Tyler." Mark replied. Mark talking about Tyler then leads to everyone formally introducing themselves before Chris orders a round of beer (Tyler excluded) and starting a conversation about the happenings of the city. 

Tyler had wanted to question Josh about why he hasn't texted him but it seemed that every time Tyler was about to get his attention, something interrupted him that made Josh oblivious to Tyler's efforts, besides the fact that Josh, Mark, and Chris were steadily drinking themselves tipsy, which was not what Tyler had prepared for. Yeah, he was going to a bar to hang out with friends, but he hadn't planned on being the only sober person. Everyone was tipsy, but at the rate they were ordering drinks, it looked like Tyler was going to be in charge of three hungover people tomorrow. 

When Mark had finally gotten drunk enough to where he was about to start climbing tables, Chris looked like he was about to fall asleep in his chair, and Josh had been nearly-crying to Tyler about how "E.T. just wanted to go home, but instead the government almost killed him!" Tyler decided that it was definitely time for them all to leave, especially when his chest started to ache from his binder. Holding a sad Josh's hand and grabbing onto Chris' sleeve, he decided to take them out to Mark's car and settle them into the backseat, then coming back for Mark and feeling in his pocket for the car keys. 

Since Tyler's apartment was closest, he decided to just drive everyone there and let them stay the night. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but trying to get three drunk guys who were nearly asleep up a flight of stairs proved to be very difficult for Tyler. After forcing everyone to hold hands, with Tyler pulling them along, they finally made up to his apartment. Getting inside, he let Mark and Chris flop down on his couch and Josh on his recliner. Tyler set bottles of water on the coffee table before going to his bedroom, putting pajamas on before crawling into bed, and letting out a sigh. He had three guys sleeping in his living room. Oh boy. 

No matter what he said, Mark didn't actually have good ideas

**Author's Note:**

> Leave feedback if you want.


End file.
